The Lawsuit: Then, Now, and in the Future

To: Arnold Zelig Schneider with gratitude, admiration, and love on the occasion of his 77^th birthday

On March 1, 1985, psychologists Arnie Schneider, Helen Desmond, Tony Bernay, and I filed a class action antitrust lawsuit against the American psychoanalytic Association, (“The American”) and affiliated groups. The lawsuit contended that the defendants' refusal to let psychologists train in their institutes or to let their teachers teach in non-American institutes constituted a restraint of trade in violation of the United States federal antitrust laws. The lawsuit also named the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) for its refusal to allow psychologist institutes IPA membership in North America.

Few now doubt the significant impact that the lawsuit has had on the psychoanalytic enterprise in America. In fact, the impact has been so profound that understandably many of the younger psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic aspirants are surprised to learn about the nature of the psychoanalytic world pre-1985 in which a career in psychoanalysis was impossible for most non-medical mental health professionals. Thus, I particularly appreciate being asked to write this reflective memoir on the lawsuit.

I would be terribly remiss not to begin with a personal statement. I have said many times that for me, personally, the lawsuit has been the gift that keeps on giving. Friendships have been the most important part of my life, and lifelong friendships with Arnie Schneider and Helen Desmond are at the very core of the bounty that the lawsuit has given me personally. I would also be remiss not to mention Nathan Stockhamer, then the clinical director at the William Alanson White Institute, who more than anyone helped legitimatize my seemingly very radical idea of using litigation to overcome the restrictive policies of the medical-psychoanalytic establishment. Nat passed